


Power

by Rollmono



Category: Original Work
Genre: Magic, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rollmono/pseuds/Rollmono
Summary: On the day of his 10th birthday Terry Andrew (an anxious kid) develops power beyond any mortal person. Terry's powers are causing him problems in his life. Terry must take control of his power before his power controls him.





	1. Cover Art




	2. Manifest

June 16th Today is little Terry Andrew's birthday. Terry is turning 10 and is excited about it. Getting ready for school, Terry takes a shower, brushes his teeth, gets dress heads downstairs to have some breakfast. His parents are downstairs as well also getting ready for work grabbing some papers and things that they'll need. "Mom, Dad, can I skip school today." Terry thinks to himself having trouble having those words leave his mouth. He thinks that his parents will say no being his birthday isn't a good excuse to miss school.

"It's 6:47." the mother tells the father. "Honey have you seen the paper for our meeting today." he asked of her

"No. Have you check your desk?" "Yes, and it's not there."

"How about your briefcase?" "I'll check." the father runs upstairs leaving his briefcase up in their room. "Terence we're going to be home late today so I prepared some chicken and mix vegetables in the frig for you when you get hungry. Just throw it in the microwave." the mother informs Terry. "6:48!" the mother yells out. "I'm on it!"

the father comes downs stairs telling the mother "I found the paper it was under the bed for some reason. That's strange."

As Terry's parents about to leave for work, he gets a sinking feeling that his parents might have forgotten about his birthday today. He wants to remind them but can't. Feeling that his parents help run a big corporation, he doesn't want to inconvenience them.

As the parents start exiting the house Terry's mom looks at her son and asks him"Hey honey, do you need a ride to school I'll be happy to wait till you're done then drop you off." "No that's okay." Terry says passing it off as no big deal. "Okay dear love." "Love you too sport." the father adds on. Once Terry finishes his bowl of cereal, he grabs his backpack and starts walking to school.

A nice sunny day out, Terry walks to school looking up in the sky imagines Soring up in the sky nothing but air beneath him, feeling free from his emotional problems feeling the breeze hitting against as him. Terry soon arrives at his school and his fantasy is now over. Walking into school he passes by some of his friends, (Jeff Lombard and Mike Dunkan) who casually talk to him.

"Hey Terence, did get the new issue off Demon Devil." jeff ask Terry "No, not yet." Terry awkwardly says.

The three begin to walks towards homeroom continuing the conversation. "aw dude I hope they answer his cosmic connection to the joker." jeff continues to. "I hope never answer that." mike protest to jeff "Their relationship should always be a secret."

"Then why did they bring up in the last issue if they're not going to answer in the next?" jeff debates with jeff. Terry says adding to the conversation "I heard it's not coming out till a week."

"Aw man a week. The start of our summer vacation." mike complains "Hey, what are you going to do?" jeff tells them "I'm going to the pool and pick up some chick." mike says "Me, I'm gonna work on my muscle gotta work out if I want to be…"

while they talk Terry looks over to Sabrina. A fellow classmate and stairs at her radiant beauty.

At recess, Terry is at a corner alone watching his friends play, trying to build the courage to ask to join in. he can't and decide to give up and watch something on his phone. Terry watches a web series called The Shake-Up which is a web series about a group of friends (mainly two girls name Mary and Jane) that do things together which causes hijinks to ensue which usually results in them getting in trouble. While watching Terry notice that he got a notification that Mary and Jane will do a live Q&A later today on their personal channel. Terry has now had a goal for today. He is determined to watch their live q&a and request them to wish him a happy birthday. Having somebody acknowledging his existence would be the best birthday present for him.

In class, the teacher Ms. Walker is teaching her students the definition of science which is "About searching for knowledge in any subject." Terry disagreed with that statement believing that science is about working with chemicals and building advanced technology. Coincidentally a student tells the teacher exactly what he was thinking. "Isn't science about working with chemicals or building advanced technology in a lab"

Ms. Walker explains "Yes that technically true but it's all to pursue a better understanding of technology and chemicals that the scientists are working with to see what is possible. The thing about science is that what we understand all or a particular subject is no longer science but fact."

Terry is pleasantly surprised that someone had the same thought that he did and was happy that it was explained more thoroughly but was disappointed at himself again that he couldn't ask himself.

After a few classes have passed only two more remains until school is over for today. During class, Terry pays most of his attention to the clock. Every day in his last couple of classes he always tries to make time go faster either by changing his perspective on time thinking about how he is already walking home or trying to be into what being taught that time just magically skips forward. Once he starts his final class, Terry starts to feel like he's going crazy. Starting at the clock all period trying mentally to will the minute hand forward feeling like he will pass out any moment desperately wanting time to just speed up and for class to be over. Then all of a sudden the minute hand starts moving forwards. Terry can't believe his eyes when the minute hand just keeps moving forwards without stopping once. After about thirty seconds the bell rang, class was over, and the teacher reminded everyone to do their homework. Terry was momentarily confused and disoriented about how fast class ended and that nobody else seemed to notice.

Walking home from school Terry imagines the moment when the girls wish him a happy birthday. Terry is filled with joy and excitement with the possibility of it happening. Terry then thinks about how this might change his life. This one moment of acknowledgment might give him the confidence to act out, to take chances.

While waiting for the live stream Terry occupies his time by drawing things he currently daydreams about or fanart of his favorite comic book shows (Demon Devil, Ceaser the Mighty, The Eight Legged Kid). Terry usually spends his days alone. His parents work at a company in the city and don't normally come home until about 8, he does not go out for the fear of the unknown dangers that await him outside only feeling safe in his house, so to keep company he will talk to himself for fun, for advice, and or to debate with.

Right now he is talking to himself about whether he should do his homework. "You should do your homework now if you want to want to watch the live stream." "You don't have to, you can just stay up longer than you usually do to work on it then finish the rest tomorrow morning before class." "You have a lot of homework and very little time why wait till the last minute when you can do it now and take your time."

"Because we already know most of the stuff. Math is easy and should only take a few minutes, we already know the words for our English test tomorrow. The only difficulty is science which we won't have until the end of the day. And besides, it's not like she checks if your answers are right, just if we did it or not."

Terry decided like the majority of kids to hold of doing his homework until the last minute deciding to watch the live stream instead of doing his homework.

Terry takes a quick shower wanting to feel clean and refresh before the time came. He scrubs his skin nice and good with soap getting all areas of his body, shampooing his hair, and brushing his teeth in the shower. Unfortunately, because he was getting to ready for the live stream he was starting to get become late to view the live stream.

Not wanting to miss it he dropped everything he was doing only having time to put underwear on him and rushed to his computer to watch mary and jane and getting ready to sees his opportunity.

Watching Mary and Jane Q&A Terry starts to become infatuated with them. He imagines that he is there hanging out with them, being great friends. He's so focused on this concept that he can barely stand it. He cannot breathe, he has blurry vision, and his body vibrates then suddenly he feels his body shifting causing him motion sickness, and finds himself in a standing position. He falls to the floor and starts to breathe slowly. While on the floor he hears people in the room with him. "That would be so cool if we were able to do that on the show. Yeah, people listen up, go to the comment section of The Shake-Up, and potion for that to happen. Oh my gosh, we're so going to get in trouble for this" He looks up and finds that he's not in his room anymore. He stands up and finds that he's in Jane's room where they're doing the Q&A behind standing right behind them.

He slowly walks away being quiet as possible leaving her room and ending up hiding in the bathroom. The girls read from the live chat that some kid just appeared in the room behind them. The girls don't believe them at first but when the chat just continuously persists that someone is in the house with them Jane rewinds the footage and confirms. Mary someone did appear in the room with us. In fear, the girl screams for Jane's mother crying that a stranger is in the house. In the bathroom, Terry tries to teleport back to his room but can't. He is drenched in fear and confusion crouching down in the bathtub breathing heavily trying to convince himself that all this is just a dream. Mary discovers that the stranger is hiding in the bathroom. "Hey come out here I'm calling the cops!" Jane's mother yelled.

With no other option, he can think of, Terry decides to just bolt it out of the house. Terry puts all his mental energy into forcing on unlocking the door because he knows once he unlocks the door there's no hesitation he has to run as fast as possible. As he unlocks the door his body vibrates and he starts to run. As he runs he feels light like he's on the moon or underwater as he jumps over Jane that is in his way in the hallway. He runs past the family in the house surprising them on how fast he's moving that they don't have the chance to get a good look at his face. Terry manages to exit the house and runs to the point where he feels that there is no one around which ultimately ends him in the woods.

Terry walks around trying to take in what just happened. "Is this real? Am I going crazy? How is this happening? I must be dreaming. When will this end?" He stops for a moment realizing he has no idea where he is, has no phone, and he's outside only wearing underwear and begins to cry. Terry feels scared not knowing what's happening to him and he cries himself to sleep against a random tree.

Being out in the cold Terry imagines being back home in his room in his soft warm bed. Constantly imagining about this causes the world around him to subtly change, becoming his room. His bed rising from the ground and the tree turning into a blanket slowly wrapping itself on him. Terry was back in his room in his bed sleeping peacefully.


	3. Damage Control

Waking up from his bed terrified, Terry tries to grasp what he just experienced, telling himself that it was just a dream to try to make scenes of it. "It was not real. In real life you can't magically teleport. But it felt so real. Dreams can be vivid. That's what makes them awesome and terrifying." Terry gets dressed and heads downstairs to get some breakfast, still trying to convince himself of the traumatic and unexplained events was nothing more than his overactive imagination. "It was just a dream. You fell asleep while watching the Q&A. You have a creative mind which is why it felt so real but why the situation could never happen. It was too extreme."

As he goes into the kitchen to grab some cereal he tells his parents "I don't want to go to school today.'' "Why sweety, are you sick?" the mother sincerely asks worried about him. "No it's just I didn't sleep well last night." Terry tells her, adding "This isn't going to be a regular thing is it."

"I hope not." she tells him "Well okay but just this once." "Hope you feel better kiddo." The father tells him as they both leave for work. As the parents left Terry sat at the counter finishing his breakfast, feeling a little bit better that his parents were understanding of his situation even though they don't know the full extent.

To get his mind off the dream he goes to the living room and watches tv. Still, he can't stop thinking about it, feeling unsure that it was just a dream. He goes into his room and checks on his laptop to see the youtube live stream video but finds out that the video is currently taken down. The fact that happens worries, Terry, even further. He then looks up any news outlet to see if anything happened on the live stream that was worthy to report on. Unfortunately, his fears are confirmed when he sees a bunch of links and articles about a mysterious kid appearing in the middle of the stream naked, and to make matters worse for him every article he clicks on has a screenshot of his face posted as the articles cover. Terry checks on his feed to see if anyone recognizes him. Come to his unpleasant surprise feed is blown up with people in town asking if that was him and or congratulating him. Terry feels unreal like he's not even in reality anymore.

Trying to stay sane from all this a thought then occurs to him that if people from his hometown already know that it was him then the news outlet for sure would have written about him which means the girls probably know who he is by now. He spatially checks his email account and sure enough, he has 3 email messages from Jane, Marry, and from The Shake-Up channel. Terry quickly skims through them and they all sound unhappy even worse when he got to The Shake-Up email. The first two was bad that he could barely read the third email but even though his mind couldn't manage to read a single sentence he could make out a few words lie sue, federal law, find hundreds of thousands of dollars, imprisoned which causes his mind goes into a meltdown mode reaching his limits on what his mind can take. His room starts to shake like an earthquake as he walks back against the corner of his room and sits back seeing the chaos of his shattered mind producing.

Not wanting to be overcome by the great power he somehow possessed he closes his eyes and starts breathing in and out nice and slow only focusing on the sound of each breath he makes. "Calm down, calm down. Breath." Terry says to himself

The shaking of his room dives down and Terry starts feeling okay. "Well crap, there's no explaining out of this." he takes a good look at his room, how it looks like it just experiences an earthquake. "It was real?" he asks himself with him replying "It was real."

With everything that just happened in the last couple of minutes, Terry decided to ignore everything for now and just take a long walk around town wearing earbuds to listen to music.

It is a bright sunny day as Terry walks throughout the town. As he walks past the local stores and public area in his town people around that see him start giving him compliments and ask questions about him hanging out with two stars which just stresses him out.

Terry hangs out at the library, a quiet place where he can collect his thoughts. He breathes deeply in and out feeling a little calm until one person (a kid named Ashly Brown) and a bunch of her friends comes up to him.

"You know there's this kid that looks exactly like you." Terry stairs at the girl in silence not sure how to respond to that statement.

Another kid (one of her friends) asked Terry "Did you watch The Shake-Up Q&A live stream last night?" "Heard of the show but no, I fell asleep." Terry answers on the fly.

"See, I told you that wasn't him." "What?" Terry says, pretending not to know what they are talking about as his heart starts to race. "A kid appeared on it that looked alot like you see." Ashly pulls up her phone and shows a screenshot of Terry with the girls.

Looking at the image tries to make an excuse that it's not him by saying "That picture is super blurry." hoping they will buy it. "Well it has your likeness. I'm sure if it was you you would tell us, right?" one of ashly friends says, still speculating it's him.

Getting extremely nervous and a little bit shaky Terry tells the girls "I would but it's not. I wouldn't even know how to get there even if I wanted to."

Terry becoming anxious quickly leaves the library feeling stressed out again. While quickly walking listening to his music Terry is stopped by some people walking down the street asking him the same questions. Terry shouts out "No, It's Not Me!" and runs away from anyone wanting to ask him questions about the live stream.

Not wanting to cause any more attention Terry goes and spends some time in the woods sitting by a lake thinking about how he's going to move forward from this. "How about we just ignore it. We tried that, it didn't work. Do you think this is just a part of life that they just don't tell you about. I don't know, let's just enjoy the silence. Okay." Terry spends his time just staring up into the sky, looking at clouds forgetting about his problem.

As Terry returns home he sees many reporters and news vans surrounding his house. Realizing that he has to deal with this problem now, Terry turns up his music, takes a deep breath, and slowly approaches the reporters mentally getting ready for a long and stressful day. Once reporters see him, they start surrounding him shouting out a bunch of questions shoving their mics in his face. Terry tries to answer but with his meek stuttering voice and the reporters relentlessly throwing different questions at him he doesn't get the chance to. All this starts getting his heart races, his mind unable to think, and his eyes beginning to swell up he can feel his power about to go arise. Terry tries his best to keep it contained. He feels that he's going to explode but before that chance happens Terry shouts out enough the voice carrying out for miles cracking some camera lense of seriously damaging some other and everyone stunned in silence as he says "One. At. A. Time."

At Mary's house, the girls watch the news city where Terry is clearing his name. "Okay first of I'm here people have seen me here this morning and even yesterday at school! How would I manage to get all the way to California where Jane lives and all the way back in about 12 hours! It's not humanly possible! Second, if I did manage to get to an airport and fly all the way over and back in that amount of time that would be so much money and there would be so much evidence of me doing this stunt which I don't think that there is! And third, I have extreme social anxiety! I'm more afraid of just going outside my house and interacting with people let alone video bomb a live stream of two most beautiful celebrities being seen by thousands of people! Since this news came out I was so overwhelmed I didn't went to school today! Even doing this interview is stressing me out if you can't already tell! Now please just leave."

After making a successful argument every reporter and article agrees with him and that the mystery kid is still out there. "Wow I guess it wasn't him after all. I kind of feel bad that he got so much attention from this. I guess we'd better email an apology to him." Mary tells Jane. Jane seeing Terry's face on the news she was sure the stranger was him. Jane was the only one who got a good look as she saw him when he ran out of the bathroom running down the hallway towards her as he jumped over her. Jane pulls up the video of the stream and shows it to Mary. "I mean yeah look at it. The video isn't even in good quality, kind of harsh to assume it was him due to a few random people claiming it was him. The media outlet, man they're the worst." "Mary I think it was him, look. that's not a reaction of a fan excited he got in but as someone who was scared and confused where he was." Jane suggested.

After a long day of successfully convincing everyone and spending all day relaxing watching tv, Terry collapsed on his bed ready to take a long relaxing sleep. After a few seconds of sleep, Terry realized that he was not sleepy, not even a little tired. "Crap."


	4. Control

"Okay guys what I'm going to ask is very important. Is there something special about our family that I should know about?" Terry asks his parents. "Special?" "Like what son?" says the father.

"Something supernatural like making things happen will like magic." Terry says, trying to sound confident in what he's saying.

Terry's mother responds in an assured not phased at all voice "Oh well, sweety your mother comes from a long line of witches, gypsy, spirits." "Really?" Terry says, surprised.

"Yeah, your great-great-grandfather can predict the future, your grandmother can talk to spirits, and I can read people at first glance." She tells him. "Why do you ask?"

Terry quickly comes up saying "I watched this movie about witches and magic and stuff and for some reason I felt this strong connection to it."

"Well sweetie, you know those movies don't actually portray people who practice magic correctly. It's about connecting yourself with nature and all living things as one."

Not the type of powers he was thinking about but it was a start to do some investigating. "Thanks mom." Terry says to her as The parents soon leave for work.

Knowing that one side of his family has spiritual connections he decides to look up that first. Terry enters the cemetery. The mother's side of the family is from this small town so that's where he goes. Reading a list of names of his relative Terry goes to each tombstone and tries to use his powers to talk to them but finds that he can't. Terry talks to each relative thinking he's trying too hard but still gets no response.

"Okay first on the list is our 4th great grandfather Betsy." "Isn't Betsy a girl's name?" "Well on the list. see it says great great great great grandfather Betsy." "Weird times back then." Terry goes down the list and one by one but still he gets no response from the other side.

Terry upset that it's not working, does anything to provoke a response from the spirits. He smack-talks to them.

"Yeah, I know you're too scared to face me. You're probably a little wimp that gets abused by your superiors!"

Barters with them. "How about if I use my powers for good, I'll bring you back to life if you want."

Begs them. "Come on man. I'll do anything. I will live out my life in the service of God if you come down and give me answers."

He even makes up a chant to somehow summon the spirits. "Oh God and Heaven among you please send down a ghostly spirit to help this child learn more about his god-like powers. Klaatu, Barada, Nikto. Hear me out of from my condemned voice! Amen!"

As he cast his made-up spell clouds formed above the cemetery, the wind blows hard and violently around the area, and then lightning struck right in front of Terry hitting the tombstone creating an explosion. The lightning blast threw Terry back, hitting the ground.

Terry looked upon with amazement as his hair stood up from the electricity. "Wow, that had got to do something." Terry says to himself. "I don't know we may have unintentionally started a zombie apocalypse." Terry waits a couple of seconds before saying to himself "Or maybe we just summoned light to hit the ground and that's it." "Don't be stupid. Wait longer than 30 seconds to see if we did brought the dead to life or not."

Terry waited 10 minutes before going to the tombstone and digging with his hand to see if the zombie was just trapped in his coffin. When he manages to get to the coffin he places his head next to it trying to listen to any movement or sound.

"Hear anything." "No." Terry sits back and says "Well that was a waste of time." "Yeah, now we have put the dirt back in its place." "Awww." Terry complains.

Thinking he's not strong enough to talk to the dead, Terry decides to go to the woods to get some training. He throws his hand up trying to shoot out energy blasts shouting out "ha!" but nothing happens. He then repeats the process multiple times to try to force it out but still nothing.

Terry then jumps off of rocks and small hill cliffs trying to fly or do some cool moves but just hits the ground. In his final attempt, Terry just runs around flaring his arms and screaming random nonsense in the hopes of something might happen. After hours of failed attempts, Terry lays on the ground, warns out, and stairs up into the sky looking at clouds and conversing with himself.

"Man, why is this so hard?"

"Things in life will always be hard."

"Yeah but this isn't life. People don't just one day wake with powers. Right?"

"I don't know. We don't know much about the world we live in."

Terry thinks back about all the times he used his gift, teleporting in the girls' room, running super fast out of their house, making his room shake, and summoning lightning on his grandfather's Betsy tombstone.

"You know each time you used your power you felt something emotionally strong."

"So."

"So, you weren't thinking all those things, you felt it, you were in the moment nothing about anything else. You willed it to happen." hammering his point.

"And how does that help it sounds like another challenge to face." he complains

"Well, you know what helps makes you feel powerful like you're in control of your life." Then Terry gets an idea.

Terry figured out that his powers are based on emotions and decided to get himself motivated into using them by reading his collections of comics in his room. He mostly reads great and powerful stories that focus on character emotional struggle and how they overcome it with help of their abilities like The Human Lighting Bolt.

reading a scene where the lighting bolt super-speed to save his girl from the black tornado trap. The lightning bolt shoots electricity out of his hand short-circuiting a device that was cutting off her ability to breathe. After saving her she gives him a kiss and he runs off ready to face the black tornado. Terry, feeling his confidence, his high point, Terry starts feeling electricity surge through his body and super-speeding out of his room.

Running around town, Terry feels the air hitting his body, feeling like he's running underwater, people slowly move around like they're moving at 0.25 the speed. Around town people catch a glimpse of Terry running but are unable to make him out and create a gust of wind wherever he runs, startling whoever's nearby.

Feeling more excited and more confident, Terry does a super jump feeling ready to fly. He sores into the air shouting out in excitement "Sweet-edge!" but his excitement is short-lived when he comes falling down crashing down back at his training ground in the woods. "Ouch." Terry says softly in a bit of pain but fortunately, he's alright. "Guess flying is too advanced for us." say while looking up into the sky.

Back at home at the dinner table, Terry uses his powers secretly for both good practice and for fun. Terry looks around the house using x-ray vision, seeing through stuff like food cans and spices behind close cabinets, seeing the skeletal structure of his parents, and seeing the inside of the furniture and the tv in the living room.

"So Terrence, how has your research been going?" Terry's mother asks.

"What?" Terry says snapped out of his distraction

"Research about our family history. Did I help shed some light on your curiosity?" she says enthusiastically about Terry's interest in her side of the family.

"Oh yeah, It really helps a lot. thank you for telling me."

"No worries and if you want to know more you can always come to me."

"Thanks mom."

Terry then flickers the lights on and off causing the family to worry. "The powers going haywire." shouts the mother.

"it's your stupid spirits doing, make them stop." said the father.

After messing with his parents Terry checks his phone and sees that he received an email from Jane. She emails him saying "I know it was you. I would like to talk to you." under the message is her number.

Terry quickly eats his food and heads upstairs to his room. Terry paced around his room in a panic. "I thought we cleared this up."

"You can't expect to clean that mess in a day." Terry explains to himself.

Terry thinks of ways to get her off his scent "We should write back clarifying it wasn't me."

The other side of Terry says to him"I don't know, she seems like she's sure and, is that such a bad thing?"

"Huh." Terry says in a stress-induced way.

"Well she doesn't seem mad, we'll get a chance to talk to a cute celebrity, and who knows, it could be the start of something." he explains

Terry takes a couple of deep breaths and says "Okay, okay I'll call her."

Terry looks at the number and presses it. His phone then takes him to the call keypad with the numbers set in. Terry's heartbeats as he tries to force himself to press the call button. The room starts to shake again but Terry is too consumed in the action of just calling Jane to either notice or care about it. Terry gives up and decides not to call her. Collapses on the floor saying to himself "Wimp." "I know."

the father comes up to his room in a panic "Are you alright Terrence are you hurt."

"No, just fell a little bit. How are you and mom?" Terry says trying to sound surprised about the shaking.

"Good. Your mother is a bit shaken up but we're alright. Never experienced a mini earthquake before." Terry's father tells him

"Yeah, that was scary." Terry says in response.

Later that day Terry goes to the family computer and does a bunch on the supernatural, mythology, and religion. Some are useful, some are pointless, some make no sense, and are impressive.

"Damn Zeus is the ultimate cheater and Hera is the ultimate bitch."

"Now I'm confused, is god loving or is he vengeful." "He could've been vengeful but then turned loving." Doesn't that make him human?" "We are created in his image."

"Okay, well this guy is a joke."

"Supernatural things. Are not an exact science."

"Okay after absorbing all that the possible theory is a greek god came down and impregnated my mother, one of my family made a deal with the devil (hopeful to god) and I'm getting the aftermath of that deal, or some aliens mess with my genetic structure."

"So we got nothing?" "Nothing." Terry confirms to himself

Terry continues to look around despite being exhausted looking for something to explain his condition. He then comes across an article about the power of the mind.

"The brain is the most extraordinary organ in the human body. It is responsible for everything the body does and even possibly more. The brain houses our conscious and subconscious that creates our personalities to allow a flow of emotions, attitudes, and healing thoughts. New studies show that with the right mental condition you can train your mind to make your body do things otherwise would seem like fiction, durability, super strength, super speed, resistance to heat, cold, and many toxins. In the east, there are monks well documented showing these great abilities by the team of scientists from OxRade university with their consent of course. Now in Germany, a grad student has been displaying some telepathy ability, reading people's minds, moving objects although these acts are very limiting it shows proof that there are endless possibilities on what the mind can do. It is only a matter of time when humans can do anything with just a single thought."

After reading the article Terry concluded, "Well this seems like something we could have."

"Yeah, an extremely advanced version of it."

"Well, we do think a lot."

Terry corrects himself saying "We easily obsess a lot, anyway I don't buy it if we can do this..." Terry points his finger up and a light shines through his window followed by a humming noise. Then people scream out "UFO!", "The sky is on fire!", and "God is upon us!" the light recedes and people's voices die down after a while. "It has to be some work or something greater." being skeptical.

"What if this is just a natural form of human evolution."

"Then that's a pretty gigantic leap."

"Well, we don't know until we look inside ourselves."

"How are we going to do that?"

Terry thinks for a moment before saying "Science class."

Later that night Terry then sneaks into school wearing all black. "Shouldn't we wait till tomorrow to do this?"

"Eh, too long, plus now we have powers, this will be easy."

"It's easy to break into a school but it's impossible to talk to a girl?"

"Yep."

"You truly suck."

Heading to the front door Terry tries to open the door but it's locked. Using his power Terry concentrate to unlock it. He closes his eyes, breathes in and out, and tells himself "You can do this." he sticks out his hand towards the lock and continues to say "Just visualize the mechanics of the lock" Terry then turns his hand while finishing "and turn it." Terry successfully unlocked the front door and headed inside.

Walking through the dark halls, Terry turns a corner and sees a security guard walking towards him. Dress in black Terry hides behind the corner of the wall using the dark to cloak his appearance, being silent as possible. The security guard walks past him, not noticing him. Once the guard is far enough Terry makes his way to the second floor.

Once up there he sees another guard hang around outside the science room. Terry creates a noise to distract him. First, it was a little tap but unfortunately, the guard has headphones on listening to music so he didn't hear it. Terry creates a bigger sound. BAM!!! "Ah too much." the guard quickly takes note and investigates the sound. With the guard walking away Terry sneaks in.

Once inside the science classroom, Terry starts setting things up. He grabs some gloves, a microscope, and some sliding glass plates. He pricks his finger using a tack he brought from home and places his blood on the glass and begins to observe his blood. After having a good long look at it he makes his conclusion. "Just as I thought. I have no idea what I'm looking at. What a waste of time."

Just then his teacher Ms. Walker comes in. Terrence? What are you doing here on a Saturday?

Terry quickly makes up an excuse. "A friend gave him this blood sample and wanted to know if there was anything strange about it because he's been feeling strange."

"Well, I'm here because I left my papers in case you were wondering. So is there something strange about his blood."

"I have no idea." Terry answers.

Ms. Walker checks the blood for him and tells him "Well it seems to me that your friend's blood is completely normal."

"Guess we are the next step of human evolution." Terry thinks to himself

Ms. Walk adds on "But if you really want to look into it you need microscopes more powerful than the cheap kind the school provided."

disappointed hearing that Terry thanks Ms. Walker for the help and they both leave the school.

"Do you need a ride home?" Ms. Walker asks Terry. "No, I'm fine. I could use the exercise." "Okay get home safe."

Terry walked home thinking to himself "Well I guess now we have to look up what places have a powerful microscope." "And research how to use it." "Oh yey how fun." Terry says sarcastically.

While walking home Terry lets out a loud hard yawn realizing how tired he is. Terry freezes realizing the more he uses his power the more tired he becomes and needs to recharge. "Huh how bout that."

Once at home in his room Terry goes to his bed feeling extremely tired. Before Terry falls asleep he picks up his phone and presses the call button. The phone rings for a few minutes before there is an answer.


	5. Warming Up

The next day in California Mary arrives onset of The Shake-Up, talking and hanging out with her other castmate waiting for shooting. Jane shows up late and takes Mary away to tell her something secret. Jane brings Mary off to the side where no one can see them and she tells her. "Mary I have something to tell you. Okay, you know that ambushed our live stream."

"Yes and when I find out who that punk is I'll beat him up all the way back to the stone age." Mary angrily says while punching her fist in the palm of her cracking her knuckles.

"I actually talked to him and he's a really nice kid." Jane tries to explain to Mary but she just ignores her saying "Jane of course you think that. You're too nice and he's a perv just trying waiting for his next prey."

"No Mary trust me it's not like that at all. The whole thing was an accident."

Mary being skeptical asks her "Really how is he video-bombing our stream in his underwear and running around your house an accident."

"Ses he actually has super-power and he is trying to control them."

"Oh Jane, so gullible, that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard."

"And I totally agree with you but he's very convincing."

"How's he convincing? What kind of superpowers can he do?"

"Well, Mary as a matter of fact he can turn invisible and…"

Mary interrupts Jane saying "and let me guess he's here with us spying on us."

"Not the spying but yes. I invited him."

Mary not believing jokingly tells her "Jane it's time for you to go to the crazy house if you honestly believe that kid is he…"

"Hello." Terry appears in next to Mary

"Ahhhhh!" Mary so much that she screams and draws the attention of everyone on set

"How you do that." Mary asks Terry, still terrified of his sudden appearance.

"I didn't want to be seen and so I wasn't." Terry explains sounding a bit shy

"That's so crazy." Mary says as she slowly takes in Terry's unreal power

"Um, hi my name is Terrence." Terry awkwardly says while taking his hand.

"I'm Mary" she responds, taking his hand to shake it.

Terry then thinks to himself frustrated with himself "Again, you said Terrence again. Say Terry you want to be called Terry."

"I can't help it, it's my default."

"No one ever gonna call us Terry are they."

"Not in our lifetime apparently."

The girls' director (who is tall, has curly black hair, and is of argentine descent) comes up to them saying "Okay girls we need you on set." he then looks at Terry and asks the girls "Who is he."

"Francisco this is Terrence. I invited him over to see the place." Jane tells Francisco.

He looks at Terry really closely and asks him "Hmm, do I know you?" Terry shakes, nervously saying "I don't think so."

Francisco, not being able to place him in his memory, loses interest in him and tells the kids "Whatever come on girl we're about to start shooting. Terrence, stand off to the side and don't get in the shot."

The director yells action and Mary and Jane do their work. The scene is Jane has to clean her room before she can go out to play. Mary enters her room and starts bugging her about it while playing in Jane's mom's make-up bag. The two discover vanishing cream and use it to clean her room, making all Jane's junk invisible. The two then use it on themselves and go have some fun around the neighborhood.

The kids take their break shooting for now and the two interviews Terry. After they're done they decide to go to the mall. They have Mary's mom give them a lift.

"So what kind of superpowers do you have." Mary excitably asks Terry.

"Uh, I don't know, still trying to figure it out. The closest I can say is... magic?"

"So you can make anything you want?" Mary concludes

"Seems like it."

"Make Alex jump up and down on one leg, pat his head, and rub his stomach, saying I'm a monkey." Mary asks of him. Alex plays one of their friends on the show.

"Uh, that I can't do. I'm still learning about my abilities and I won't make people do things unless I am 100 percent sure I won't cause any mental problems to them."

"That's really responsible." Jane tells Terry admiring his maturity of using his power.

"Okay but what if a guy just came in a shot up the place, you wouldn't make him drop his gun and surrender."

"No, I probably would just drop something really heavy on him to stop him."

"Cool." Mary says thinking that's way better than just stopping the guy

Since this episode involves the girls being invisible for most of the episode they have some free time to do whatever.

"Well, we have some time left before they need us again, let's go to the mall." Jane suggested.

"Come on Terence take us to Westgreen Galleria Mall." Mary tells Terry.

"What do you mean? Teleport us there at the mall." Terry tells Mary.

"Yes you can."

"I can't, I've never been there, I don't know what it looks like. I can't take you to a place that I've never been." Terry explains to her

"You manage to get yourself at Jane's house no problem." Mary argues

"That was different. I had a clear picture of what her room looked like. Do you have a picture of this mall I can look at?" Terry tells her sounding salty

"Fine, let's just get my mom to drop us off." Mary says annoyingly.

Mary asks her mom (who looks just like her daughter but much older) if she can take her, Jane, and Terry to the mall to which she says yes. While driving to the mall. Mary's mom makes some small talk to Terry to get to know him.

"So Terry you live around here."

"Um no I'm just visiting"

"Oh where do you live then"

I live in... Washington DC. I'm here visiting my grandparents."

"Oh, that's sweet. So tell me, how do you know Mary and Jane if you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, I uh…"

Jane interrupts Terry telling Mary's mom "I found him sitting all alone so I invited him to the studio."

"Awe, that's very nice of you Jane."

Once they arrive at the mall the girl instantly runs upstairs to shop for some fashionable, cool-looking clothes. Terry looks at the with amazement never seen a mall before living in a small town. The mall was filled with people and a bunch of stores Terry never even heard of. The mall has beautiful decorating lights and is three-stories tall.

They shop at Forever Jenny Gal which is on the third floor filled with expensive and beautiful clothes. The girls talk for a while picking out their favorite clothes and trying them on while Terry holds everything and follows them.

After a while they take note that Terry isn't conversing with and Mary tells him "You don't talk much do you."

"I don't have anything to say." Terry answer

"I don't believe that." says Jane.

"Then I don't have anything to say as of now"

Done with their clothes shopping they head over to the cashier where there is a long line filled with people carrying lots of clothes.

While standing off to the side Jane notices a lot of clothes Mary picks out. "Damn Mary, that's a lot of clothes can you afford all of that?"

"Of course I can with my new friend here" looking at Terry as she says it.

Terry with his deadpan face tells her "I'm not going to create money for you."

Mary frustrated complains to him "Aw come on what good are you if you can't do things for your friends."

Just then the duct tape materializes over her mouth.

"You talk too much." Terry tells Mary.

"I'm sorry about Mary, she can be a little… extra at times." Jane tells Terry.

"It's okay. For some reason, her bossy attitude doesn't really bother me" Terry explains to Jane.

Mary takes the duct tape off "Owwww!" Everyone looks over to Mary causing her to be embarrassed. "Okay well, can you at least make the line move faster?"

Terry drops all the clothes he's been carrying and puts out his right hand and turns it clockwise. Time seems to speed up as people start to move super fast. As he stops the girls are almost at the cashier as they notice him and Mary tells him "Finally we've been waiting 2 hours for you to break out of your little trance."

"Mary, it's only been 20 minutes." Jane clarifies Mary.

Terry with his eyes wide open and stunned in silence turns his hand counterclockwise, reversing time back when Mary just removed the duct tape "Owwww!"

the clothes he's been carrying starts to fall since he is no longer in the hold clothes possession he was in. Terry looks at the clothes that just fell as Mary tells him "Okay well can you at least make the line move faster."

Terry silence and still in his frozen state.

"Terrence? What wrong" Jane asked him.

Mary starts to feel bad and tells him "Fine I'm sorry if it seems I'm using you for your super-powers, it's just you don't get the opportunity to…"

"Shhhh. I'm still processing" Terry tells Mary.

"Don't shush me!" Mary yells at Terry being all sassy.

"What are you doing." Jane says as Terry links his arms with both of them and again turns his hand clockwise not stopping till he sees nobody in the line anymore. The girls look in wonder as they see people around them moving at hyperspeed.

Mary is impressed by what she witnessed, looks at Terry with excitement and yells out to him"Alright my man!" slapping his hand.

Terry starts feeling the girls making sure they are still with him. Terry then explains to them still in his wide eyes expression "I did this earlier and you guys didn't come with me."

"Is this your first time traveling." Jane asks.

"Yes." he responds

"I'm glad we were your first." Mary says to Terry as she grabs her clothes and makes her way up to the cashier.

The kids put their clothes on the counter and are greeted by a white female employee with brunette hair who looks at the kids reluctantly.

"You kids have money to pay for all this?" she asks the kids sternly.

"Yes we do." Jane responds, being nice.

"We're Mary and Jane from The Shake-Up. Perhaps you heard of us." Mary tells the employee being all showboating

"Definitely heard of Mary Jane." the female employee says sound disinterested in the kids

The employee scans all their clothes separately while muttering some unknown things under her breath.

"Well somebody salty." Mary tells her friend noticing the employees attitude

"Come on Mary. She's just probably having a tough day." Jane says trying to be understanding.

"Still she could be a bit nicer. We are paying customers after all." Mary points out.

The female employee is done scanning and tells Jane"Okay, that will be $82.5 for you" then Mary "and $150 for you."

Terry flabbergasted hearing the price whistle and said "That's a lot of money."

The girls take out their purses and take out their money to pay

Terry looks at the girls causally paying like it was no big deal. "I never knew how much I hated you girls till now. I want that kind of money."

"Well, you can when you're on a hit show like us. Maybe I can hook you up." Mary mockingly tells him

The employee looks at the girls aggressively. And told Jane I can't accept your dirty money. There is no way a person of your kind can have this much spending money unless your parents obtain it illegally."

"But..." Jane tries to tell her with her eyes slowly watering but the cashier employee cuts her off by telling her "Leave before I call the cops."

Jane then starts running out of the store crying. Mary runs after Jane and Terry look upon her with anger and disgust before he too runs after Jane. Outside the store, Mary tries to cheer up Jane as Terry stands next to her patting her back.

The cashier employee walks out of the store and tells Jane sincerely as possible "Little girl I'm sorry I don't know where that came from. I've just been having a stressful day, I've kept everything in and I took it out on you. I'm sorry would you like a pass for a life-time of free clothes."

Jane looks at her and says strong and confidently "No. I don't accept your apology. You just can't say whatever you want then just take it back like nothing happened. Hope you have a nice day you piece of waste of life."

Jane then storms off with Mary and Terry following her.

"Why didn't you accept her apology. She seemed really genuine." ask Terry

"Terry you have to learn people like that don't apologize for nothing. She was probably worried I'll sue the company and get her fired." Jane tells him.

"Are you going to sue?" asked Mary.

"No the company didn't hurt me, I don't need anything from them, but they are going to hear about what that employee has done." Jane tells them trying to let that woman phase her.

As the kids are walking back to Mary's mother, they hear someone screaming. They quickly turn their heads and see some guy falling off a three-story balcony and another guy running away. in a panic and without thinking Terry freezes the guy mid-air breaking his momentum before letting him fall safely on the ground.

The guy who threw him off runs off pushing people out of his way and makes his way towards the kids. the girl immediately runs out of his way but stands still with fear. Before the guy could get his hands on him a voice in Terry's head tells him "bash him!" Terry moves forward bracing for the guy's impact and smashes into him with all his might sending the guy flying, sending him into a department store window shattering the glass.

The guy slowly leans up and looks at Terry. Terry in anger his eyes start to glow white and his fist starts to illuminate. The guy is in fear, screaming at Terry, convinced that he's a demon.

Once the mall security showed up the glow from Terry's eyes and fist dims out. The guy screams begging the cops to take him away from the kid, but when the cops turn around they don't see him.

Terry appears again behind Jane and Mary. The girls turned around and Jane asked him "Why didn't you show yourself?"

"Yeah, you're a hero with all the fame and recognition." Mary asks imagining how awesome that would be.

"I don't want the attention." Terry answers.

Jane's mother comes over and hugs the kids worried about them. Jane's mom takes them back to the studio to finish their last shot. The final shot Jane's mother is fighting a cop over who gets to use the megaphone. The cop wants to use it to tell the kids they're in trouble but the mother wants to use it to tell her daughter to just come home. The family dog sniffs Mary and Jane out and licks them wiping away the vanishing cream. Jane's parents both hug the girls telling them they miss them.

Shooting ends and the girls look for Terry. As they leave the studio they spot him lying outside on a grassy area looking up at the colorful sky made by the sun going down, looking at the clouds. Before Jane and Mary leave they decide to join him.

They both lay down next to him and Mary tells him. "You're a very quiet kid, Terrence."

"Yeah." Terry responds

"You know what they say about quiet people?" Jane asks Terry.

"They're usually psychotic." Mary answers

"No." Jane tells Mary annoyed "That they're the most nicest creative people" Jane continues to say

Terry smiles as his body begins to vibrate. Terry begins to astral projects out of his body looking at himself with Jane and Mary.

"Today was a good day." Terry says to himself.


	6. Feeling Free

Terry returns from California feeling great. Terry lays in his bed and thinks about the day that he's at with Jane and Mary.

The next day Terry entered the school with a smile on his face and presenting himself in a confident energetic way. Terry runs into his friends Jeff, Mark, and Clyde hangs out with them.

"Hi Terrence, you seem peppy." Jeff says, taking notice of Terry's new energy.

"Well, I feel peppy. I had an awesome day yesterday." Terry tells them.

"Really what happened?" ask mark.

"I could tell you but you would not believe me."

"Come on tell us." mark says. "Try us." Jeff tells terry.

"Try this." Terry goes into his backpack and takes out the new Demon Devil issue.

"No way, you have this. It's not supposed to come out until tomorrow night." Jeff says in amazement.

"I have my connections." Terry sees Sabrina at her locker and decides to take a chance "You know speaking of connections."

Terry walks up to her and makes his move "Hello Sabrina." Terry says in a suave way.

"Oh, hello Terrence." shock to see him so assertive.

"So how about you and me go out to a movie tonight?"

Sabrina giggles a little bit not expecting Terry to be so bold "Okay."

"Cool, pick you up at 8."

"Sure."

Terry then climbs through the window

"Hey Terry, where are you going?" Clyde asks, being concerned.

"I'm too excited around in a room for 6 hours learning nothing that will ever reply to me in life."

Shocked by Terry's new attitude Jeff says aloud "That was so not Terrence."

Terry goes home feeling outstanding. Terry looks at himself in a body mirror, trying on different clothes for his date tonight. First a tuxedo, but that was too fancy for a movie date. Next a button-up shirt with khakis, but it was not Terry's style. Terry then tried on a blazer, with a tie, which was close but not quite right yet. Finally, he stuck with just nice clean clothes, a white shirt, denim jeans, and a hoodie jacket.

"So how long till our date?" Terry asked himself.

"12 hours."

"Ahhh! Why so long?!" Terry complains.

"Maybe you shouldn't have class, makes the time move a lot faster."

"Or maybe we can just skip today and just go straight to the date." Terry says

"Come on, don't skip the entire day, you'll possibly miss out on something important."

"All right, all right. Let's just do something we always wanted to do."

"And that is?"

"I'm not sure yet."

Terry spends time thinking of anything he has always wanted to do. He tosses a ball against the ceiling, and Pace back and forth, and even meditates but nothing comes to him.

"Think of anything?"

"Nope." Terry gets frustrated that he can't think of anything. "Ahhh! Why is it so hard?!"

"I guess you focus on things you want when you don't have the opportunity to get it as opposed to these powers that make everything possible."

"Wow, that sucks."

"I don't worry you just have to remember what we wanted before you got these magnificent, astronomical, horrifying, powers."

"Well..." Terry takes a moment to think. "I always wanted to be invited to hang out with the other kids."

"There you go I wait to be invited when we can just go."

"Okay."

"Let's go."

"Wait, it's only 8:25 school is still going.

"Oh." Terry spends about 10 seconds waiting before asking himself "You want to just skip ahead to where school ends?"

"Yes!" Terry says in relief.

His friends, Jeff, Mark, and Clyd are at a convenience store buying snacks. Terry just so happens to bump into them and hang out with them. They first just walk around town, then they go to Jeff's house where they just talk, then they play video games. At first, Terry likes spending time with them, feeling a sense of belonging but as more he spent time with them, talking about sports, girls, and becoming rich the more he lost interest in them.

Watching Clyde and Mark play smash brawl 5000 he thinks to himself "Okay I'm bored."

"Wait what?"

"I'm bored and I want to leave."

"Can't just leave you made a commitment."

"No, I didn't."

"You made an unspoken commitment not to leave until it's time for your day; it's only 3."

"Yeah, but I have nothing in common with them."

"Yeah but they're nice."

"Kind of. Listen I don't want to seem like a jerk. I'm just going to skip forward to my day."

"Wait but..."

Appearing outside of Sabrina's house feeling great until he takes one look at the house. Terry feels his panic attack coming back to him. He can barely move as he tries to think about taking another step. Terry talks to himself to try to get past the cold paralyze fear he is feeling.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, you know this was much easier when this date was hours away."

"Yeah and now you have to follow your commitment to Sabrina."

Terry managed to walk up to the front door. He materializes some flowers then he rings the doorbell. Sabrina opens the door and she comes out looking beautiful. She too is just wearing casual wear, but the fact she said yes to him, Terry can barely hold himself together.

"For you." Terry proceeded to hand her flowers.

"Thank you." Sabrina notices how anxious he is "what's wrong?"

"Nothing just nervous."

"Nervous but you seem so confident when you ask me out."

"Yeah, I was in a different mindset back then."

"I hope you're not having second thoughts. I've been looking forward to this all day."

"Oh, I would never." Terry assures her

The two start walking to the movie theater. Terry is still bumbling around getting worse as he feels more embarrassed but Sabrina actually feels flattered that he feels this way towards her.

Working up the nerves to talk to her Terry asks Sabrina "So do you know what movie you want to see?"

"You're okay seeing anything I want?"

"Yes." then thinks to himself "No."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." finishing in his head "Not."

"Even if it's something girly like The Tender Loneliness of the Yearning Lady?"

"If that is your desire." adding "That's not my desire" in his head.

"Okay, then I want to see The Ultimate Supremes."

"What?" Terry thinks to himself before saying "Okay not what I was expecting."

"What, you don't think a girl like me was like an epic comic book movie?"

"Not that I just never heard you talk about anything comic book related before."

"Oh have you been stalking me or something?" she says flirtatiously.

"Now just surprised."

When they get to the theater Terry tells her. "Everything is on me, get whatever you want."

"Oh, how gentlemanly of you."

"That seems wrong using your powers to cheat the system especially when you refuse to do the same with Mary."

"When you have the power why not use them to your benefits."

The two go see The Ultimate Supremes where the two have a great time. A movie with a bunch of action with powerful emotional scenes mixed with a little comedy. The two enjoy the movie but mostly enjoyed each other's company, holding hands halfway during the movie, seeing each other's expressions during the movie, and a spark igniting between Terry and Sabrina.

"I had a great time tonight."

"That's great so you want to do this again sometime?"

"Sure thing."

"Okay let me think of some other place we can go then it's a day."

"How about I choose our next place for our date?"

Terry is about to leave before Sabrina says "Terry?"

She then kisses him on the cheek. She enters her home and Terry is so excited he runs into the woods, jumps high into the sky, and explodes creating an insane light show. Terry then floats down like a leaf. He gently lands on the ground taking in the kiss Sabrina gave him. But then something enters Terry's mind, something that causes him to be concerned, something that she says to him. "Terry?"


	7. Out of Control

Back in his room, Terry talks to himself about his attitude change

“Terry? Terry? Nobody calls me Terry."

“It only makes sense the closet you get to someone things like shortening name will be a thing" assuring himself also adding.

"I know it's just weird.” Terry admits to himself. 

“I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. you've been acting entitled lately using your powers recklessly, becoming more impatient, skipping events of the day just to get to the part you want missing out on important parts of life.”

“It's my power, I can do anything I want with it, why not use my power to its full potential. Not using it is like the same as not having it." Terry says, trying to justify his actions.

Terry clarifies and says to himself "I'm not saying don't use it, I'm saying don't let this power control & destroy you."

Having said everything that he wanted, Terry goes to bed worrying about his future.

The next day is the last day of school. Today is the day where teachers don’t give out any work and the kids don’t do any work and conversate with their friends. In science class, Terry still thinks about his well being, being more aware of his actions, and trying to not go off the rails like yesterday.

Jeff and the other start a conversation with Terry. "Hey Terry"

"Terry?" Terry thinks to himself surprised and now being suspicious of his friend

“Look man I want to say sorry for yesterday." Jeff told Terry. 

Confused not being aware of what happens Terry nervously says "Yesterday?" 

Jeff clarifies saying “Yeah, kind of letting you out playing Smash Brawl 5000. That was pretty shitty of us.”

Relieved nothing to serious tell Jeff “Oh uh no worry I barely even notice”

“I bet how was your date by the way." Mike tells Terry giving him a wink and a nudge

Clyde adds on "It was good, come on, tell us the details."

Terry is silent. He knows that the date was great but doesn’t know why it’s great. Was it all genuine or was it his powers making it great. Then suddenly a voice speaks out behind Terry “Guys he doesn't have to tell you if he doesn't want to; me on the other hand it was great. Terry was a real gentleman" Sabrina tells the boys while giving Terry a lovely hug behind him then kissing him on the cheek.

"Alright Terry!" Mike says excitedly as the rest cheer Terry on implying the two had a special night.

The five of them continued to talk throughout class talking about things like what they are going to do over the summer and throwing a party.

"Finally, the last day of school" 

"We should throw a party." Jeff says to them.

The rest of the group liked the idea, Jeff saying "Yeah, a big one to forget about all the boring hall room & homework stressful tests & the horrible teachers we had to put up all year."

Terry also liking the idea says to them “How about we have it at my house.”

Terry’s eyes widened nervously at what he just said. Terry thought it was a good idea to do so; lots of people, big houses, it was perfect but he had no intention of volunteering his house. He was trying to hold back to his impulse urges but some force made him say it through.

"That's perfect." Clyde said “This will be the greatest party!”

The group makes a game plan about how to set up the party. The group would get the party supplies food, drinks, music, and will go around school inviting people, having the party tonight. Terry would do nothing since it is his house that he is volunteering and has some things to work out.

For the rest of class, Terry thinks about the sudden outburst back there. The feeling of not being in control of his body.

Going to his next, Terry looks at his phone to distract himself. Going through his phone Terry sees that he got a text from mary. He reads it saying that someone has confessed to busting the live stream and scarring the girls. Terry opens a link with the text message that sends him to an article explaining it more in great detail. 

“Thomas Wheeler, a 13 kid in California has just confessed to breaking and entering one of the girls from The Shake-Up and crashing their live stream. Thomas Wheeler admitted to the act by Twitter explaining how and why he has done so. The 13-year-old boy's excuse is to promote his own channel Magic Tommy.” 

Terry, angered by this appears behind the boy. Terry does not take note of the sudden change of location only focusing on the boy who claims to be him. 

Terry’s eyes begin to glow white as he speaks to the boy “You think it's fun personating people?”

The boy jumps, surprised at his sudden appearance in his room.“Woah who are you?" Tommy asks.

Terry's eyes glowing more harder and his voice sounding more aggressive and gravely like a monster asks him "You think you can take people & claim it as your own accomplishment?”

Tommy getting scares shouts out "Mom! There's a ѕtrаng, kid here!” but Terry tells Tommy "your mom can't hear you. It's just you & me.” 

As he says this Terry's skin turns black, his mouth starts to widen with his teeth turning long and sharp, his body starts to grow 7 feet with nails turning into long sharp claws. Tommy looks at him with fear as the monster form of Terry gets closer to him.

"I will teach the consequences of your actions.” Terry says as he lifts his finger to his forehead.

horrifying images start appearing in his head, Terry takes great joy watching him suffer until he looks up and sees himself in Tommy’s mirror. Seeing his monstrous form. Terry, feeling guilty and scared about what he’s turning into, changes back and wipes Tommy memories of what happened then vanishes.

Terry goes back to the cemetery and forcibly summons the ghost of Betsy to ask him questions about the afterlife and if his powers are somehow connected to it. Terry goes in front of Betsy's tombstone and raises him from the dead. Terry brings him out of the ground and converses with undead Betsy.

“Why? Why me? Why do I have this kind of power?”

Betsy answers “It's not a question I can answer but a question you have to answer yourself.”

"What kind of answer is that?" Terry asks him annoyed at his answer. "Am I a human, an alien, a god!? What!?"

"You are Terry."

"Come on what's with these answers?" Terry asks, becoming more frustrated. 

“You know what kind of answers these are.” 

Terry trying not to lose control again takes a deep breath. Then thinking about the answers, ask Betsy a very important question. 

“Okay last question, are you real, or are you just my imagination?"

Betsy just smiled at Terry, giving him the answer he feared. 

Putting Betsy back in the ground dead tells himself “We've got to get a handle on this." 

"I know." 

"Before it consumes us."

“I know!" Terry yells at himself trying not to break down.

Terry now scared, fearing his wild-growing power "What should we do now" not knowing what to do next he tells himself “Let’s just go home &... Damn!"

Remember about the party at his house Terry rushes back home not knowing what to do when he gets there. Walking through the party in his house Terry tries to bring his fears down by trying to enjoy the party but a part of himself keeps pointing out the inconsistency.

“How did they set all this up?"

“How long were we gone?” 

“Our sense of time is totally screwed up?"

"Do we recognize half of these people?"

“Can we please just try to enjoy this just because we don’t know what’s real anymore doesn’t mean this isn’t real?”

“Hey, Terry over here!” Terry's friends call him over. Terry cringes over the fact they said his name reminding him that this all could be a facade.

Before he could interact with them the song in the house changes into a slow calming one. Sabrina runs out of the group up to Terry asking him “can I have this dance.” Terry, infatuated with her, agrees and takes her hand. 

As the two slow dance with their bodies up against each other, Sabrina's head resting on his shoulder, it was completely perfect. Terry just wanted this moment between the two to be real, that the two really do have a genuine connection. As the song goes on the lyrics and melody turning more intensifying to the grande finally Sabrina closes her eyes and leans in for a kiss. Terry tries to force himself to accept it but deep down he can’t accept his first kiss being manipulated. Terry stops her and asks her the ultimate question: one that will prove if she is doing this out of her own free will.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just need to ask you a very important question.”

“Yes, I do love you.”

“Not that this question is very odd but just bear with me.”

“Okay, what is your question.”

Terry takes a second then asks her “A red flower turns white when it’s hit by the light. Water turns to wine when someone drinks it blind. The dead stay dead when resting in its bed. What connects these stories together?"

Sabrina takes a moment to think about it before responding. She then answers "By our bond forever."

Terry grew cold as she answered. She was right. She answered a non-cohesive riddle that was made up from the spot and with the answer made up. Now knowing this relationship was fake was his popularity fake. People calling him Terry were really not his friends. His anxiety came back stronger than ever. Terry leaves the party breathing heavily as everything shocked around him but strangely enough people at the party didn’t seem to notice. 

Once outside, Terry can feel his power going out of control. Terry can see the world literally shattering around him as he tries to make scenes of his life. His mind races thinking is this all a dream, is he even real, then comes to the conclusion that he is crazy. That was the only thing that made sense in his mind. He is crazy and everything that happened in the past week was in his head. 

Then the world around turns into a white padded room with his clothes morphing into a straitjacket. Terry looked around being scared and confused. He tried to break free from his straitjacket but could not, he looked at his surroundings crying and screaming out for help. After a few minutes, some of Terry's anguish died down enough for him to realize where he was. Terry breathed heavily as he was trying to mentally process the fact that he is in a mental hospital.


	8. Now it's Time

Terry is shocked when he realizes where he is and starts crying, wanting to go home. The cell door opens. A guard comes into the room and tells Terry "You’re free to go.”

“What?” Terry, confused by what the guard said.

"No no no this can't be happening. I want to go home." Terry cries out as his mind starts to fall apart.

"Okay, terry you’re free to go" Terry looks at him with unsettling emotions, shock, fear, confusion, nausea.

The guard elaborates "Yeah, your parents decided to take you home under their care." Terry's parents then come through the door, his mom saying to him "Come on sweetie. It's time to go home."

Unable to believe this becomes hysteric & yelling out loud that I want to wake up. Just then the world around him turns black as his body starts to feel strange. Terry opens his eyes and finds himself in his bed in his room not knowing what's real anymore.

"No, no, no, no, no. This is not happening, this isn't real. This is just a dream, a really really bad dream." Terry screams to the top of his lungs shattering everything causing Terry to be surrounded in total darkness.

Now being in a black void with no noise, no distractions, Terry finally had a moment to rest. Terry takes a deep sleep slowly building back his sanity.

Once awake, Terry finds himself still in the darkness. Now with a clear mind, Terry can think about the situation. “Okay is this reality?”

“No, I think we removed our self reality. We are outside of space and time.”

“Are we even real?”

“I don’t know, does this hurt?”

*SLAP* Terry slap's himself

“Ow! yeah.”

“Then we’re real.”

“Maybe we’re just characters in a larger story?”

“If that was true then we shouldn’t have a past to remember. Can you remember anything that happens before your birthday?”

“Okay let me think.”

“Think about another birthday you had.”

Terry thinks back to a birthday party he had when he was 5 years old. Looking back at his 5-year-old self, he sees how happy he was surrounded by his family and relatives playing games and having fun.

Seeing the young innocent child's joy and excitement Terry asks himself “Man, what happened to us?”

“I don't know life?” he answers.

Now living through a happy memory Terry now has to think of a bad memory since life is not just happiness.

“Okay, this one of our more favorable memories how we focus on one that was not as pleasurable.”

“Well, that's kinda hard. I don't spend days thinking about bad mem- oh wait I got one.”

Terry gets transported back to his memory of his 8-year-old self on a school field trip at the museum of natural history.

“Why are you talking back!” the teacher yells at terry.

Terry quietly responds, voice cracking as he tries to get the words out “I’m not.”

But the teacher just says in a stern judgmental voice “Just do what I ask. It’s not that hard!” and leaves continuing with the museum tour.

“Aw man, I don't want to go back here.” Terry says to himself, cringing and tensing up at what awaits him.

Terry sees his 8-year-old self being yelled at by a teacher for misunderstanding a situation in front of his classmate. As tears swell in the 8-year-old Terry's eyes, 10-year-old Terry gets angry, clenching his fist feeling sorrow for his 8-year-old self. 8-year-old Terry fights back the tears, keeping his feelings deep inside as his classmates laugh at his misfortune.

“I want to leave.” Terry says with deep resentment to this day.

The world fades to black again and Terry tells himself “Just one more. Something not that special. Something mundane.”

Terry thinks for a couple of seconds and asks “What happened before we turned 10.”

Terry thinks back to the day before his birthday. Terry is just living his life, having conversations with his friends that he’s barely in, staring at his crush during class, walking home, and watching tv.

“Well, this is nice. I think we’re ready to go back.”

Before leaving, Terry sees himself laying on his bed watching the ending of The Shake-Up episode where at the end of the girls are given their announcement about the Q&A Livestream that they’ll be having tomorrow.

As Terry calms down and feels confident about his life, the black void slowly fades away, turning back into the night sky. Terry is back outside of his house where he had his temporary mental break. Terry walks back into his house now an abandoned mess. Terry looks around the house, looking at the cluttered mess and looking back at the last week of his life and realizing what he has to do.

“We have to leave”

Jane walks into her room about to get ready for bed when Terry appears in her room ready to say goodbye to her.

"Ahhh! Terrence, what are you doing here?" scared by his sudden appearance.

"I’m here to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?"

"Yeah, something today. I almost lost control, I need to leave to learn how to control this."

Understanding his situation she asks him "Oh. How long will you be gone?"

“I don't know.” Terry tells her, also adding with a sweet half-smile, “I just came here to say thanks for being my friend."

Jane smiles back at him saying back "It wasn't that hard. You made a memorable first impression."

Terry steps back and looks at Jane one last time before fading away.

Back at home, Terry cleans his house not with his powers but by hand staying up all night until it was clean, then waits for his parents to come home. Once they do, Terry goes over to them and hugs them.

The mother, happily surprised by this, asked Terry "Oh, what's this for?"

"I just want to savor this moment for as long as I can." Terry responds.

After a few more minutes of his warm embrace, Terry disappears along with all the images of him around his house, every item that belongs to him & also his parents’ memory of him.

Terry is now out there in the world learning about this unbelievable power he has gained, not knowing what he will find or if he is able to return home but ready to face any situation head-on.


End file.
